


Strike Hard

by Ghost0



Series: The Brave & The Bold (A DCEU WonderBat Story) [3]
Category: DC Extended Universe, DCU (Comics)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:09:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29685852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost0/pseuds/Ghost0
Summary: Someone breaks into Arham Asylum while others try to break out of Blackgate Prison. The one pulling behind the string reveals himself and the motivation for why he is doing this is revealed.
Series: The Brave & The Bold (A DCEU WonderBat Story) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2179917
Kudos: 1





	Strike Hard

Arthur had his eyes closed, but he was far from asleep. He was paying attention to his surroundings, trying to see if any guards were walking about. Blackgate was silent, all the other prisoners within its walls were asleep. Part of him wished he found someone that could provide him a watch so he could keep track of the time. But it was too late now, all he could do was impatiently wait for the pick-up. Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait much longer. The door of his cell slowly and quietly opened up. Opening his eyes, Arthur pushed himself up and got on his feet. He nodded his head towards the cell across from him. The guard turned to another that stood behind him, motioning to the cell. His partner unlocked the door and got Rick and Danny. The two of them slowly walked out into the hallway, not making a sound. They tried to stretch some of the muscles in their arms and legs to make themselves fully wake up. One of the guards walked in front of them, the other behind them, and escorted the group down the hallway to the door that separated this group of prisoners from a different hallway. 

The door was unlocked and the three of them joined the missing two members of their crew. After the door was shut behind them, Rick looked towards Arthur. “All right, class is in session. Now will the teacher enlighten us to what the lesson plan is?”

“Right now, we wait.” Arthur told them. “Our employer says we will be taking someone with us. One of these guys is supposed to be joining is.” The other four guys just stood there and mindlessly stood around. A couple of them leaned back against the wall, the seconds becoming minutes. Might not seem that long, but the tension between them and the compromised prison guards made it seem far longer than it was. But the tension was momentarily forgotten when they all turned their heads to see a guard bring a new prisoner towards them from a different cell block. He was a little older than them, a tall black guy with a stern face and odd tattoos on his arms. Once he stood in front of them, the guard took off the handcuffs. 

He rubbed his wrists and looked at each one of the group individually. “What do you want from me?” He demanded.

“I simply want to get out of here.” Arthur told him. “But you, big Papa-“He patted the tall guy on the shoulder. “-are supposed to come with us. Orders from the same guy that told this spineless twit to do as he says.” He motioned with his head to the guard that brought this new guy to his group. He said nothing to Arthur, simply looked right at him. But with a slight nod of his head, Arthur took his hand off and looked towards the guards. “I believe our carriage is waiting for us on top.” One of the guards gave Arthur a look of resentment, but nevertheless had the other guards surround the prisoners and escorted them through the hallway, getting to the stairs that will lead them out and away from Blackgate.

******

A couple of security guards stood by the staff entrance into Arkham Asylum. One of them smoked a cigarette as they waited. The other raised his eyebrow as he saw the Batmobile come towards them, shining its lights on them. But when the door opened, it wasn’t the Batman that come out and approached them. “Is he…?” He started to ask the armored woman who approached him. Diana had her sword hanging from side, as well as her lasso. Her shield hung on her back. She stood still as she addressed the two men.

“He is working on another case. But has asked me to come here.” She told them. “If it is all right with you, I don’t see any reason to delay.”

“Right. Sure, yea.” He grabbed the key from his belt and went up to the door. The other guard grinded his cigarette into the dirt while the door got unlocked. Diana walked through and up a couple of steps to the next floor. One of the guards got in front of her in order to type a code into the keypad. The sound of the buzz unlocked the door and allowed the three of them to walk through. Standing in a small waiting space between two doors, a key was used to open the second door, pulling it open. “Go down, up those steps to the next floor.” The other guard pointed out in front of Diana. “There is another hallway and he will be up there.”

She turned back to look at him. “Don’t you have to come and unlock the door so I can see him?”

“There…there should be a guard standing in front.” He explained. She took note of the small pause in his sentence. “He has been informed that you are coming. Or, I guess him but I will radio him.” She turned her head forward and stepped into the hallway. All along both sides, there were a series of metal doors that contained an inmate in their own cell. Her boots had a small echo as she started to walk down the hallway towards the stairs. When she heard the door close behind her, she just assumed it was Arkham protocol to close that door after someone stepped through. But a few moments later, a loud alarm began to blare in the hallway she stood in. She stood still, her body and tense and prepared when she heard the metal doors of each cell unlock and slid to the side as they opened up. Her hand grabbed her lasso, which glowed brightly as she unraveled it. Turning around, she spun the end of the lasso in a circle and pushed it forward, knocking down the inmates that started to step out of their cells and approach the door she had just stepped through. 

She turned her head and stared down the inmates that were standing in between her and the stairs. Several of them grinned, turning their bodies towards her. The biggest of them began to push others out of the way, eagerly trying to get to her first. Diana stepped to the side, jumping up and briefly running along the wall of the hallway. She threw her lasso and wrapped it around the chest of the large inmate. As she pushed herself away from the wall, she swung her leg around and kicked him in the head. She landed on the ground and used her strength to pull on the lasso and toss the large inmate towards a couple of the others to knock them down. Standing straight up, she brought her arm up to block a punch from a new opponent. He then tried to kick her, but she wrapped her arm around his leg. She pushed forward and slammed him against another inmate before turning around to take on two more at the same time. From the corner of her eye, she could see several more inmates starting to get back up to try and attack her. Diana dropped down and stuck her leg out as she spun around and took down the two she was fighting. As she began to stand up, she grabbed her shield from her back and tossed it against one of the walls. It bounced off and hit a couple of her would be attackers. She rushed forward, grabbing her shield and using it to slide across the ground to attack the legs of several mobile inmates, making them all land back on the ground. As she got back on one knee, she stared down more that were still willing to take her on, a few of them seemed to have also been able to take out hidden blades. Making sure her grip on her shield was tight, she lunged forward to take on the remaining inmates.

As Diana fought the suddenly released inmates, the next floor that the stairs are supposed to take Diana to had the Joker wait in his cell. He was the only one in this section of Arkham, his room at the end of a hallway that was empty of any other inmate. A metal door that opened up into a large room where he remained behind a glass wall. He sat in his bed, back resting against the metal wall. He heard the sound of the alarm, the battle between inmates and a vigilante. But the person who opened the metal door into his specialized cell was no hero. His boots hit the floor, bringing him closer to the glass. Joker brought his eyes up to look at his new guest. He wore armor, mainly black. But there was a little bit of orange as well. Mainly on the left side of the mask he wore, his eye peeking out from the one hole it had. It looked as though one sword was secure on his back, the handle peeking out from behind. For a moment, he just stared at the clown behind the glass, whose smile spread across his face.

“Look at you, right on time. I see you wanted to start this year’s anniversary with a bang.”

“This will be the last one for you.” Deathstroke clenched his fist, spiked knuckles on his new glove made especially for this moment. He began to punch the glass wall, his left fist repeatedly slamming against the clear barrier. It at first seemed like it was doing nothing. But then small cracks began to appear, starting to grow and spread out from the same spot he kept punching over and over. It seemed like he was about to break through it. He brought his hand back one more time, only to feel something wrap around his forearm. His eye turned back and saw a shining rope wrapped around his arm. He brought his focus up from his arm and glared at the Amazon who stopped him. 

Diana brought her leg up and had the lasso on her end wrapped around it. She pulled and brought her leg down in an effort to pull Deathstroke away from Joker and towards her. But as she did so, she could see him use the force of her pull to his advantage. He pushed himself off the ground and towards her. He brought one leg up and slammed his foot against her chest, the force hitting her collarbone. Diana was pushed backwards but quickly got back on her feet. As she stood up, she met the gaze of Deathstroke’s eye. “I know what today is. But you don’t have to go through with this.”

“This has been waiting for far too long…Wonder Woman.” He brought his hand back and grabbed the hilt of his sword. But as it was pulled out, it became two. Twin katana blades, the blades pressed against each other as he held them in front of his body. “I was hoping he would show up. But since it’s you, I don’t have to hold back.”

Diana grabbed the sword from her waist and rushed at Deathstroke. He used both swords to block her strike and push her weapon away. She stood her ground, keeping balance, and blocked one of his strikes with her bracelet. Stepping back, she jumped up on the wall and pushed herself forward to get behind her opponent. She kicked him in the back, forcing him forward. But he got on his knee to prevent himself from falling down, turning around to swing his leg. Diana jumped backward, grabbing her shield once again. He lunged at her, swinging both swords from the side only to be blocked. He swung around, Diana trying to take the chance to swing her sword at him. But his twin blades caught it, and with a swift and firm movement, forced it out of her hand. It dropped on the ground, sliding a few feet away from them. He forced her to go on the defense, constantly swinging his blades at her and making her react. The Joker got off his bed and approached the glass wall inside his cell. He watched in enjoyment and chuckled a bit as he took in the fight. His body was right behind the cracked part of the glass that was close to giving in.

Deathstroke saw that from the corner of his eyes. Once he was sure he had the chance, he had one of his blades go into one hand. Now free, he went for the gun on his leg, bringing it up and firing a bullet. It flew through the air and pierced through the cracked glass, pushing through it and through the Joker’s chest. He turned back down to look at his opponent. “I do have schedule to keep. You can either come after me or save him.” Diana glared up at him, thinking quickly. But she turned away from him and entered the cell. She moved past the glass and to the bleeding body of the Joker. The bullet appeared to have passed through, the path on the right side of his chest. Meaning his heart was unaffected. She looked over her shoulder to find that Deathstroke had already disappeared. The clown laughed as much as he could, bleeding out on the floor on his cell while Wonder Woman was forced to save him from death.

******

The door to the roof of Blackgate prison opened, allowing Arthur and his crew to step out. It was the middle of the night, a cloudy and dark night. A large helicopter was waiting for them, the blades spinning wildly in the air. Arthur smiled as he saw their escape vehicle waiting. But then his eyes were drawn to another approaching vehicle. This was a plane, and it opened up to let its passenger jump out and down onto the top of the prison. The guards grabbed onto their clubs and started to approach the Batman, despite every instinct knowing they shouldn’t be doing this. The caped crusader fought them off, but making sure to not waste too much energy or to cause too much damage. Arthur felt his group starting to get a little worried, despite their faces showing they are willing to take him on again.

“Get on!” They turned around to look at a young girl that approached them. Her outfit was similar to the one worn by Arthur’s employer. Chain mail underneath a few pieces of armor and flexible cloth. The color of the cloth and most of the armor was dark blue. But the belt around her waist, gloves & forearm guards were dark orange. Even half of her mask was orange. But on her, it was on the right side of her face. And the mask only covered the top part of her head. The lower half exposed, similar to the mask of the Batman. Her slightly curly hair was a ghostly white, reaching down and past her shoulders a bit. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t get in the way.” Arthur took a minute to process the fact he was taking orders from someone younger than him. But after looking back to the dark knight, he knew he wasn’t really left with a choice. He yelled at his crew and got them to follow him to the helicopter.

After Batman was done with the guards, he turned around and stared at the young girl. Her hand reached back to pull out the single katana sword from her back. She held the grip with both hands and held the blade in front of her. The sight of her in something like that was something he didn’t expect, but he didn’t allow this to throw him off guard. She made the first leap forward. He expected her to attack him head on, but she then pulled away and went to the side. Getting closer, she grabbed his cape with one hand and pulled with all of her might. Batman was pulled backward and off his feet. He rolled across the ground a bit but recovered quickly to get on his knees. His arm guards came up and blocked the blade that was swung down on him. “So Slade is having children do his dirty work for him.”

“He followed your lead.” She replied. He pushed upward, making his opponent fall backward. She leaned back, her free hand pressed on the ground. Her feet came up and used both of them to push hard against his chest, making him grunt and take a step back. When she landed back on her feet, she turned around pushed herself backwards. Her arm pulled back and her straight hand connected with his throat, where his outfit was the weakest. Batman reached for his throat in response, but she grabbed his arm and flung him over her and onto his back. As she straightened up, she walked around him. “He took note of everything you did with your old sidekick. Noticed where you failed and made improvements.” Her one eye glared down at him. She stood over his body, one foot on his chest. “Unlike you, he made sure that I was good enough to take someone like you on by myself. Getting killed by you isn’t part of the plan.”

“I wasn’t going to- “

“Like you haven’t already been doing that for a while.” She cut him off, leaning forward to get closer to him. “I mean, as long as they are eighteen or older, it shouldn’t be an issue, right? Seems like you and that green haired shit have that in common at the very least.”

He looked up at her, gathering the strength needed to take her off of him. “Why do you know about Joker?” 

She clenched her fist and brought it down to connect with his jaw. His head was turned to the side, spitting out a little bit of blood. “I made it my business to know my enemies. It’s my right I should know the two people responsible for Dick’s death.” Another hit from her fist. She gritted her teeth as she glared at the bat beneath her foot. “I may never get to know my brother, but at least I know who you are, Bruce Wayne. Before you end up sharing the same fate as him.” When she took her foot off of him, he didn’t make a move to try and get up. She turned her back and walked away from the dark knight, getting into the helicopter. The chopper rose up and flew away. Batman could hear Alfred’s voice in his communication device, but he took a moment to process what had just been revealed.

******

Diana stepped out of the vehicle and made her way up the steps. She saw Bruce sitting in front of the computer monitors. Without looking or turning around, he felt her approach him. “He bribed the guards at Arkham. That was what the money stolen from Gotham National was for.”

“Them and for the ones at Blackgate.” She said. “And whoever couldn’t be bought, must have been blackmailed.” Her eyes focused on one of the screens that showed the mugshot of a young teen girl. Beside the mugshot was a medical report. “Who is she?”

“Rose Wilson.” He answered. “Grew up in Boston, lived with her mother. Couple of years ago, she passed away following a battle of lung Cancer. He must have been keeping tabs on her and knew when to step back into her life.” 

Diana placed her sword on shield on the table. Leaning forward, she looked back up at the screen for a moment before turning her attention back on Bruce. “Did he ever know that he was adopted before you?”

She watched him turn around towards her. Even though she met his eyes, she felt that he wasn’t completely here. Thinking back on events long since transpired. “I became aware that the Grayson’s weren’t his biological parents when I adopted him. The records were sealed and it seemed like they never told him. After he discovered…all of this…and agreed on a partnership, I did tell him everything I knew. I asked him if he wanted to know, but he declined.” He pushed himself off his chair and approached the table where she placed her weapons. His mask was off, staring down at the Amazon sword. “Years ago, we encountered Slade in Gotham. I took note of how he seemed to restrain himself when taking on Dick head on. I had a hunch, but I left it unconfirmed until after…” He looked back up at Diana. When he did, he found himself more focused. The memories are still there, as well as the pain that came with it. But talking to her, looking at her, made it better. It dulled the sensation. He took a deep breath and continued. “Part of me has been waiting for him to come after me. He might have never made an effort to reach out to him or to tell him who he was, but he still sees him as his flesh and blood. He blames me just as much if not more so than Joker. And all these years, he has been preparing to take me down for good.”

“The way you speak; it sounds as if part of you wants him to succeed.” Diana looked right at him, not allowing him to look away. He felt the directness of her statement, knew he wouldn’t be allowed to dodge accusation.

“On that day, I knew what the Joker was planning to do. An attack on Gotham itself and at the Manor. He unleashed a monster in the city, knowing it would take me away from the fundraiser I was hosting up there!” He pointed up towards the ceiling, in the general direction of Wayne Manor up above them. “I should have known how much manpower Joker would bring with him. And I let Dick take him on by himself. I had an ally in the field, someone to help me contain that monster, but he didn’t. It was my home and I should have been up there. If anyone should have been lying dead in there when Joker burned it to the ground, it’s me!”

“It was his home as much as it was yours!” She shot back at him. Her voice was firm, but her face showed empathy for the man that stood in front of her. “You taught him as much as you know, trained him in every way that counts. Both as a warrior, as well as a person. I have never met him, but if he is anything like I think he is, then he knew the risk and was willing to take it in order to protect all those people in the Manor. He died doing what he knew was the right choice.” Diana stepped towards him a bit. She reached out and placed her hand on his chest, on the bat symbol. Directly over where his heart is. “I see his death left a hole in your heart that let darkness rush in. I know that losing someone you love can be a great pain. But if he could stand here now…he would tell you there is nothing to forgive. That it is finally time to forgive yourself and to move on.” Slowly, his hand reached up and he placed it on top of hers. While she pulled away from his chest, she continued to hold onto it for a little longer. But they let go and stepped around him to look at the screens behind him. “We know today is the anniversary of Dick’s death. Slade will use that fact to make you react based on emotions and not strategy. I got close enough to plant the tracking device on him, but it won’t be long until he realizes that.” She turned back around to look at her partner. “Is the man they broke out the same one who helped you entrap the creature in the painting?”

He nodded. “Goes by the name Papa Midnite. Right now, it isn’t a question of if they can release him, but when and where.” He approached the computers and tried to figure out the most likely spot Slade will launch his next attack.

******

The warehouse was damp and cold. Long ago abandoned, the perfect spot to lay low in a city like Gotham. Arthur and his crew remained in their orange jumpsuits, but were given weapons once they had landed. Given to them by a couple of other men that Slade had hired in addition to him and his people. They helped escorted Papa Midnite into the warehouse near the docks. Within the large empty space stood Slade himself. His helmet is no longer on his face. The black patch covered his left eye, the white hair on his head matching the color of his facial hair. A large armored truck was behind him, and to his side was a painting on an easel.

Midnite recognized the painting when he first spotted it. He curiously turned his attention to Slade when he was taken to just a few feet in front of the mercenary. “You wish for me to release the beast the is contained.”

“He’s a part of my plan.” Slade simply stated. “If payment is what you want, I can certainly compensate you for your services.”

Surprisingly, Midnite shook his head. “I have the means to leave this city. All I ask from you is why it is so important that he is to be released. Certainly you are more than capable of drawing his attention.  
Slade remained quiet for a moment, contemplating on how he wants to answer. But then he took a step forward towards him, no change in his facial expression. “I don’t just want his attention. I want him distracted. Blindsided by what has happened when the dust settles and that thing goes down for the second time. When he took him on last time, his actions resulted in the death of someone I care about. I want to see him break when he realizes that this time, his same actions will lead to the death of someone he truly cares about. If you have an issue with that, I can assure I will have no issue slicing your throat and watching you bleed out in front of me.”

Arthur watched the two of them, his heart racing a little bit. Midnite kept a cool look as he gazed back at the one eyed man. Moments felt like years, but it ended when the escaped prisoner spoke. “I assume the vehicle is meant to transport him to where you want to go.”

Slade nodded. “Make sure he gets in before you finish up. After that, go wherever the fuck you need to go.” Midnite took a couple steps forward towards the painting. He started some sort of breathing exercise. Slade looked at Arthur Brown directly. “Make sure this gets done and ensure he gets transported.” He nodded and watched his employer move past him and outside of the warehouse. Arthur’s crew were joined by more of Slade’s men as they prepared to greet the prisoner within the painting, setting the stage for the next part of the plan.


End file.
